Holiday weekend rides

[Crankin]

DH decided he would document our ride today. There's a lot pictures with very stupid captions.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/6409720...57627118232240

[azfiddle]

Yesterday I did a 20 mile trip up toward the base of Mt. Lemmon. Very few cyclists out- not surprisingly, as the overnight low temp was 80 and my ride, between 6:30 and 8:00 am, was between 85 and 92, with higher humidity than usual (over 50%, which is high for Tucson). Still, of the 15 riders I saw (on route where I might usually see 100!) I ran into 2 friends.

Today we rode on a 28 mile ride organized by a local youth cycling organization (El Grupo). The group reaches out to area youth, especially but not only disadvantaged youth, and gets them involved in cycling. This ride benefits some kids attending a mountain bike camp in Flagstaff. We were at the very end of the group, since a lot of folks left earlier than the official start time. It was really a nice morning- with mostly overcast skies and cooler temperatures. They had aid stations with refreshing and delicious watermelon as well as water, electrolytes, cookies, chips etc. I stuck with the watermelon and water, and had my own electrolytes already. And it was nice to support the kids.

[jessmarimba]

I'm baaaaack!! ~85 miles roundtrip over two days. First half pretty much all uphill, second half pretty much all down (and a full hour shorter). That bike is certainly a tank with all of my stuff on it.

I started getting really nauseous about 2 miles from being back. I think it was a salt issue - I wasn't tired and was ok as long as I kept pedaling, but when I stopped to fish another water bottle out of my bag I thought I'd be sick. After 32 ounces of soda and some super-salty fries I felt MUCH better.

(After a shower, a beer, and some tortellini, I feel even BETTER...about to go get the ice cream!)

[chryss]

Only about 19 miles today of which 16 or thereabouts on the road, and a short 6 mile jaunt on the mountain bike trails last night. It's been raining every day for two weeks or so now, and we're getting a bit fed up with it.

When the sun came out in the afternoon, I jumped on the bike, rode up to the road (slowly, unpaved roads with big puddles and up a sharp incline) and turned left, which is the hilly side. I haven't ridden there in a while, though the club rides I am participating in have gotten a lot hillier, so I wanted to see if there was some improvements on "my" rolling hills. It goes like this: Down first, then one hill, after which there's the local school, then two more hills, after which there's the local inn, then a long hill with steep and more shallow section, after which the road drops into a small valley and stays there for 2-3 miles. Then it slowly creeps back up, with two stores coming up right at the start of the incline -- that's as far as I had gone. Roundtrip would be a little over 20 miles to there, but I wanted to go further, maybe 1h out and then turn around at a convenient spot.

But that was calculating without the weather. It was nice until I dropped into the little valley, where drops started to fall, and looking up, I saw a grey wall in front of me. I went on for a while with the rain in my face until I felt that rain was really quite painful, and looked closer to see little grains of hail or graupel. A lot of cars on the road, too, with trailers or camper vans -- it's the height of tourist season, and the road is the main access to a large state park and the only access to a hot springs resort. Anyhow, I turned around in the valley, thus the low mileage. It was a lot better with the rain coming at me from the back, too.

On the plus side, all the hilly rides with the group clearly improved my stamina, and while I'm not fast, "my" hills felt a lot easier (and a little faster) today. And I got a wonderful hot shower at home afterwards.

[Catrin]

DH decided he would document our ride today. There's a lot pictures with very stupid captions.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/6409720...57627118232240

Great pictures - and I must admit that I chuckled at some of the captions. It looks like the two of you had a great ride!

[Sky King]

DH decided he would document our ride today. There's a lot pictures with very stupid captions.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/6409720...57627118232240

Love it!!
Looks like a really fun ride, like your Terry Jersey, I have that one and the long sleeve one as well

[Norse]

This was supposed to be the weekend to really push some final training for the upcoming Red Ribbon Ride (local AIDs/HIV 4-day, 300 mile fundraiser), but, it was rather a tale of misadventures.

Saturday: I planned about a 50 mile solo ride through rolling countryside, however, I made the BIG mistake of donating blood the day before. Note to self: never again. So, even though it was still early, it was hot, I felt sluggish, crappy and nauseated. Decided to keep going and just try to take it easy. The powers that be decided that if I would not stop myself, they would stop me. 6 miles in, rear flat with a bent piece of metal stuck in my rear tire that I could not pull out. Call DP for ride to LBS, ride over. Rode bike home after tire fix, hopped on trainer in cool basement for a 1 hour work out followed by yoga.

Sunday: Could not get out until afternoon and again, it was hot. So, I did a fairly easy 24 miles on local paved trails and wide-shouldered rolling roads.

The 4th: 5 of us doing the upcoming RRR had planned on meeting in WI to do a mighty hilly 60 mile ride - we have a day of horrid hills in southern MN bluff country on the RRR so hill training is crucial. Two bailed because of the heat and ever climbing dewpoint. Of the 3 of us left, my friend S kept falling behind and we were afraid he was not feeling well - turned out, his brake was rubbing. So, while J and I were up the road ahead of S, and a mere 8 miles into our ride, J's seat suddenly flies off his bike while riding up a hill. The seat bolt snapped clean in two and now we had a dilemma. J trotted over to some local friendly looking farmers and they helped him jerry-rig his seat on with another bolt, but it looked rickety so we decided to turn around and get him back to his car. Meanwhile, S fixed his brake. On the way back, J's seat comes off again. We got his car and went back to get him. His day was done. S and I figure, we came all this way, we've only gone 16 miles and we need more hill work! We found hills, BIG hills on a 9 mile out and back route. Did it twice, drained our gatorade, low on water, called it good and went home where DP and I grilled salmon and asparagus and watched the day's TDF. Yay Tyler!

[Trek-chick]

I only got out for a 20 mile ride on Sat morning. The rest of the weekend was spent with friends and family AND getting our stuff/packing for our trip to Mt. Rainier (93 mile hike on Wonderland Trail) at the end of this month.

[m.eliza]

Managed 46 miles on Saturday and a total of 60 on Monday (though in 3 separate rides). Got slammed with a migraine 10 miles from home on Monday. Fortunately I carry Ibuprofen on my bike! That plus a few minutes sitting in the shade dulled it enough so I could get home. Great weekend overall!

Crankin, I love your pics. I felt like I was looking at pictures of my own rides How does DH manage to take such nice pictures while riding? I'd be too nervous to operate a camera and ride straight at the same time.

[Crankin]

He has outstanding handling skills, though it still gets me nervous. He took 800 pictures on our tour in Spain last year, most of them, while on the bike. He did stop for a couple of them, yesterday.
I can barely do the water bottle, so I try not to pay attention to it! Though he did find out you can't take a picture mountain biking down even a little hill. Last summer, before we sold our mountain bikes, we took a practice ride before we went to Maine to actually use the mountain bikes. We were on the Annursnac Trail, right near the town line/Stonymeade, when I went ahead and was waiting, waiting. Finally, he appeared, all bruised, the result of trying to take pictures while riding in the woods. I laughed my head off.

[tulip]

21 derful miles on Saturday along the Chesapeake Bay, and 40 on Monday. It was extremely muggy on Monday. Liquid air. Ick. But a beautiful ride through fields of sunflowers.